AEON Skin Mods/Themes (unofficial modifications to the AEON skin) [Archive]

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-15, 20:04

@ewaterke
That sounds like a good plan. Although i must admit I watch the kids movies too. Thanks for the tip though.

@jazzen
So far I have a music wall that functions this same way, i just need to make an glass border for it now. I am also planning on putting some of skunkmonkee's old music views in it as well.

@notshorty
I am keeping 7 across with up down scrolling because it seems natural for me. I already have a working info screen and I am planning on adding the trailer button today and possibly cast photos depending on how motivated i feel.

@skunkm0nkee

Thanks for the kind words. I feel like I should be thanking you though. All of my stuff is based on your mods. Thanks for giving me such great code to work with.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-15, 20:12

Damn can't edit my post:

Oh yeah. Jezz-x had mentioned he thought the aspect on my posters was off. I know the unfocused items are maybe a little distorted because i am trying to squeeze exactly 7 across and 3 down so they fill the entire screen without gaps. However I tried to get the focused view as close to normal as possible. Am I just in need of glasses? How does everyone feel. Do the posters look really distorted? I am having a little trouble with the fact that the resolution of Aeon code is actually 720x576 PAL16x9 instead of 1280x720. I don't think the pixels are proportioned 1:1 either. It was quite a headache to get it to the point it is at right now considering my entire career skinning started less than a week ago. If the posters are really off perhaps someone with more experience, say skunkm0nkee or Jezz-x, could look at my code and tell me where my mistake is that would be great! Cheers.

jimg

2008-02-15, 21:18

It's beautiful, I especially like the glass outline. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

I'm kind of torn though on one issue. I can't decide if I like the idea of having to push info to get info for each show or having having the info show up like it does when you focus on a item for a second or two from DJH's version.

I'm assuming your plan is to have no info until you push the info button?

Thanks again
Jim G

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-15, 23:05

Yep that is my plan. I think adding the info after wait period would make the view to similar to DJH's orginal. This might be just me but when i browse by just posters i pretty much know what the movie I'm looking for looks like. So the the only time I would really need any info would be something like the cast list or something like that. That info would be too difficult to have in popup window. Just my thoughts on the issue mind you. So, you don't feel that the Posters aspects are too distorted?

djh_

2008-02-15, 23:34

Yup, your unfocused icons are out of proportion, though your focused one seems fine. One-sheet movie posters are thinner than DVD covers, remember.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-15, 23:36

Sweet ;) I can live with the unfocused items being a little off. Thanks for the great skin DJH. I would be proud to have my mod hosted in your mods section if you allow it. Cheers.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-16, 00:59

Shots of the tv banner locations. I also used the diffuse effect that I borrowed from PMIII to make them blend better with the back grounds. As it is right now they slide in from the right and go all the way across the screen. It is a neat effect but I don't know if I should just take it out completely. Any opinions?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/johnslayer/screenshot003-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/johnslayer/screenshot000-3.jpg

Info screen with added trailers button. It's really just skunkmonkee's screen with a new button.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/johnslayer/screenshot004-1.jpg

Nick8888

2008-02-16, 03:15

looking very nice indeed. I cant wait until Aeon is a complete skin and there are mods like these for different preferences.

NotShorty

2008-02-16, 03:20

Hmmm, the unfocused posters are a tad "short and fat" I guess. Maybe allow the top and bottom rows to run slightly offscreen so aspect ratios are maintained. I mean, the focused poster is gonna look good anyway, right?

jimg; of course it's all personal preference, but IMO, my posters give me a pretty dang good idea of what movie is selected. The downside to the pop-up info in djh's original was no plot/cast info, and no IMDB ratings (a huge drawback for me). Pushing the info button is just fine for me.

This mod seems to be headed in the right direction, keep up the good work :cool2:

Competes2win

2008-02-16, 03:27

I agree that in that poster wall view I feel that all of the aspect ratios should be maintained, having all of the icons look perfect is much preferable over having 7 neat and tidy rows... in my opinion I couldn't care less if the edges run over a bit. My humble opinion...

keep up the good work.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-16, 03:43

Ok, i might let the top and bottom rows overlap a bit to sure up the aspect of the unfocused items so long as it doesn't require too much running over the edges. Although to be honest I am far more concerned with the aspect of the focused item. It was a bitch to get it where it is now so I'm hoping i don't have to change it. Expect music views in the next couple days. I think I'm about done with video views. Cheers.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-16, 23:28

Here are 2 music views. In addition to these 2 there is also the Music Wall which functions just like the movie wall. I still need to finish the border and then I'll have some screenshots.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/johnslayer/screenshot000-4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/johnslayer/screenshot004-2.jpg

Angus

2008-02-17, 07:35

Is this available for download? If so, where? I'd love to check this out.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-17, 08:04

No download yet. I still have a few more things to do before it's ready for public consumption. I tweaked the tv views again today. Now the banners fade in once you select a tv show instead of sliding across the screen. The library "list" view is now a "season" view. It lists your seasons on the right hand side of the screen and displays a large image of the season thumb in the info panel. It is basically the movie/tvep view but without the zoom out effect because there is really no information to reveal about TV seasons. I also modified the visualizations screen. Now music info fades after a few seconds and can be called with the info button at any time. You do need to check the setting in the AEON menu to display info during visualizations though. I also got another of the mod7 music views working. Here is a screen shot:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/johnslayer/screenshot000-5.jpg
There is a small black line the goes across the back of the screen and for the life of me I can't figure out why. It doesn't seem to appear in library mode though. That is the last music view I am doing. So in total there are the 2 posted above, an alternate wall view and this 3D album scroller. I will finish the Music Wall tomorrow but I'm calling it a night for now. Cheers.

Competes2win

2008-02-17, 11:18

Not only is there a black horizontal line, it seems as if the glass panel above and below that line are different. Furthermore, the reflections are way out of proportion, larger than the actual albums and therefore extending far too much downward.

skunkm0nkee

2008-02-17, 12:06

There is a small black line the goes across the back of the screen and for the life of me I can't figure out why. It doesn't seem to appear in library mode though.

If you want to send me a copy of the code then I could have a look at it if you want? (PM me if you're interested)

Livin

2008-02-17, 19:22

Rand,
The black line looks like the back of the "floor" for the CDs to 'stand on'. Notice the shading under the line itself is different than the shading above the line. I looked but cannot find it in the PSD. Maybe DJH has an updated PSD he has not posted?

DJH might need to create a new image for that view.

btw... look'n good!

NotShorty

2008-02-17, 20:02

I'm gonna put it out there; if you like it, you can take it, if you don't, send it right back. -Ron Burgundy

Scroll with right and left buttons; fullscreen album info by pushing "info" button. Yeah, I know that's the wrong font :confused2:

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/6481/screenshot0005wt1.jpg

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-17, 20:04

@Competes2win
Whoa there simmer down ;P I said is wasn't perfect yet. My skinning skills are minimal at best so I am doing what I can within my means.

@Affini
That is kind of what I had gleaned too. The line seems to be the convergence point on the horizon if you will. It calls wideglass.png so there is definitely nothing in the image itself. As I mentioned there is no line in library view.

@Skunkm0nkee
If you could look at the code I would really appreciate it. I have a few small issues that I am bashing my head in trying to pin down. If you could take a look at those the mod would pretty much be ready for release. I will send the PM later today. Thanks.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-17, 20:09

@NotShorty
First, props for the Anchorman quote ;) Second, I do like that. In fact i had even considered doing a coverflowish movie view as well. I might tinker around with it and see what happens. Do we prefer a full cover flow view as opposed to one with a list on the side?

NotShorty

2008-02-17, 22:51

...I might tinker around with it and see what happens. Do we prefer a full cover flow view as opposed to one with a list on the side?

You know, the more I think about it, I think your Music view here (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/johnslayer/screenshot000-4.jpg) (as well as its corresponding Movie view from mod v7) are the ones I'd use. Ideally I'd like the tiles to extend all the way across with info only when I press the info button, but beggars can't be choosers. Here's why I like that view most:

1) I don't have enough TV Shows to fill an entire Poster Wall. Therefore, if I have [Movies; Poster Wall, Music; Poster Wall... Oops, TV Shows; Wide icon with randomly changing backgrounds] that's really inconsistent. Also, I sure as heck don't have enough games to fill a Poster Wall (only 3 emulators and Madden '08 which fits on my stock hard drive) :(

2) Coverflow suffers the same big drawback as several other views; you can only advance one item at a time (unlike tiled views, where rows and columns allow you to skip ~5 at a time). Much simpler navigation for large libraries.

3) Coverflow is sexy... but it's Apple-flavored :p. That's the biggest reason I lost interest in the xTV skin. All that effort and tweaking, just to be a design imitator, IMO. Now, one could say that AEON "feels similar" to Windows Media Center, which is fine because xbox is a Microsoft product, but I personally don't want to be mistaken for a Mac fanboy.

How do they feel similar?
Home Screen
-WMC; up and down navigation between categories, left and right for settings
-AEON; left and right navigation between categories, up and down for settings
Cateory views
-WMC; tiled with right and left scrolling off screen
-AEON with Mod v7; tiled with up and down scrolling off screen
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/9775/musicpj6.jpg

These are just the opinions of a guy who's trying to avoid cleaning his apartment. By no means would I try to discourage someone from tweaking to suit their own tastes. Also, I've got nothing against Macs. I just don't like the douchebags that use them ;)

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-17, 23:10

I agree that poster walls and even cover flow are not actually all that functional views by nature. They do look pretty though ;) Personally for movies the only view I really use is the Movie info view or perhaps the tiled view as you mentioned. As for tv shows my taste are a bit more varied. I like wide info to pick the show. I made a special view just for seasons because that view always bugged me. It is a list on the right hand side with a large season thumb in the info panel. Then for the episode level I use again my old staple movie/ep info view. Unfortunately, i am having trouble getting screen shots of it because the text never shows up but trust me it is really nice. The icons appear large at first then zoom out revealing the info. Depending on whether it is a movie or a tv show the info displayed and the position changes accordingly. If you haven't guessed already I really like that view!

Ok enough about my tastes here are some more screenshots. I finished the glass for the music wall:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/johnslayer/screenshot002-2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/johnslayer/screenshot001-2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/johnslayer/screenshot000-6.jpg

And just for you NotShorty, I changed the cd cover view to fill the screen ;) It does make more sense I guess since there is another view already with the angled album cover and you can already see the album covers anyway.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/johnslayer/screenshot003-2.jpg

I am going to have skunkm0nkee look at my code and see if he can nail down some of the bugs I can't seem to find. The 3d album music view *might* become a full coverflow view. Other than that I think I am done. Cheers.

NotShorty

2008-02-18, 03:06

Awesome, thanks! :D

jazzen

2008-02-18, 10:25

looking very good... great work!

w84no1

2008-02-18, 16:25

Great work, can't wait until it is released :)

Wir3d

2008-02-19, 06:18

I'd be REALLY surprised if you didn't run into memory issues using that movies poster wall on an XBOX.

gummismurfen

2008-02-19, 13:44

When can we estimate an release of the mod? :grin:

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-19, 16:33

@Wir3d
Actually I hadn't really considered that :blush: I am using the pc build for skinning purposes and the linux build as my day to day platform. Skunkm0nkee has been taking a look at some issues with the code for me, perhaps he might be able to verify if the issue exists?

@gummismurfen
As mentioned above, Skunkm0nkee has been helping me nail down some final issues before the release. The 3d album view no longer has that annoying line in it and the wall views now respect the appropriate zoom parameters. Depending on how much time I get to work on it the rest of the week I would think it might be ready for download this weekend.

skunkm0nkee

2008-02-19, 19:10

As far as memory goes, I guess it depends on the size of the thumbs, if they are max'd (at 512x512?) then I would guess that there could be some problems but if they are more realistic (376x376?) then it may be ok

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-25, 18:13

The 3d album view has now become a full coverflow view. I have also updated the videoinfo screen a bit so it only shows the pertinent information. For example episodes now share airdate and not a blank mpaa rating. The next step is to finish the musicinfo screen. I am still waiting for a reply from JM about the issues with the video wall. Other than that, I think this mod is done :cool:

djh_

2008-02-25, 23:18

Post it here when you're done and I'll finish off the mods page of the site. Thanks again for the effort.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-26, 02:34

Thank you djh. If it wasn't for all the great code I had to work with I wouldn't have anything! Like I said, I'm no skinner. I am just looking at the work of great skinners and trying to mimic it. Cheers.

R111

2008-02-26, 14:27

Post it here when you're done and I'll finish off the mods page of the site. Thanks again for the effort.
where can we summit mods? maybe djh shd open a new Aeon mods topic.
also, do we have to summit complete skin or just post the modded xml file.

sry Rand to use your topic to ask this..

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-28, 05:56

I have found a solution to the animation issues with the wall views. It is not perfect but it works ;) Anyway, this mod is done. Expect a release some time this weekend or whenever I can find time to get it uploaded. Cheers.

jazzen

2008-02-28, 09:32

greeeeat...having a party tomorrow... can u get it out before then? plz ;)

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-29, 05:19

Here it is. I *think* this is all the files but just in case I missed one feel free to let me know. Here is the changelog, it is also included in the mod.

#############
Mod version 1.0 By Rand Al Thor

VIDEO
Added: Alternate Wall View
Added: New Movie/Episode Info View
Added: Tile Views
Added: Season/List View
Changed: Info Layout of Wide View
Added: Fade in Tv Series Banners
Added: Videoinfo screen with trailer button and Glass Border
Fixed: Airdate and Total Episode# for Tv Shows
Added: Settings for scrapers.
Added: Video playlist Screen

MUSIC
Added: CD case Tile View
Added: Artist Info View
Added: Alternate Wall View
Added: Coverflow
Changed: Info during visualizations fade and can be called with info button. Requires display info during visualizations button to be checked in Aeon settings.
Fixed: Music Playlist now displays
Fixed: Playlist Editor now works
Added: Album Info and Song Info

PICTURES
Added: Alternate Wall View

Special Thanks:
Thanks to Dr. God for making all of this possible. djh for the awesome skin. Without him none of this would be possible. A huge thanks to skunkm0nkee for the original mods and for helping me troubleshoot some of the animations. 90% of what I have done is based on his work. Thanks to jezz_x for his help with the wall views. Affini, agathorn, and all the people who supported this mod. Last but certainly not least, thanks to the whole xbmc team for making my life complete.
#############

Let me know if there are any issues. Some feedback would be nice too. I am interested to find out if the wall views eat up too much ram on the xbox.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-29, 05:32

Sorry, had to pull that one down. Last minute change. Here is the real link
http://rapidshare.com/files/95795632/aeonmod.rar.html

Nick8888

2008-02-29, 06:01

I will definately be trying this out tonight. scraper settings, video info and playlist will make this skin usable again for me. The extra views are a bonus as well. Thankyou for your work mate.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-29, 06:06

If the wallviews are too ram heavy as suggested earlier i might revert to the sizes used by djh's original but keep the control movements I have devised. That would also make it easier to implement the info popup that appears after a few seconds of not moving. Honestly though, I like the bigger thumbs ;)

Nick8888

2008-02-29, 06:30

I'll be running on linux so I cant test that sorry. I do like the look of it from screens you posted in the other thread though.

Nick8888

2008-02-29, 08:19

Just got a chance to try it! VERY IMPRESSED. I've got thumbs set to 512 which I think makes the posterwall slightly sluggish but still pretty quick. finally seeing the results of always creating quality posters for my movies. I like how in poster wall, the time and date disappear when you select the top right icons. Also would probably like the movie/ep info view in the tv file section though I can add this myself I think.

Overall it is very useable and will definately be default here.

Nick8888

2008-02-29, 08:26

also just noticed
Changed: Info during visualizations fade and can be called with info button. Requires display info during visualizations button to be checked in Aeon settings.

text fades but the background texture doesnt. it stays on screen and doesnt disappear.

Nick8888

2008-02-29, 08:36

sorry about the repeated posts and i hope i dont sound like im complaining..

but watched/unwatched seems to be missing?

and now playing info in menus doesnt display artist or song name

cast photos arent displayed either but I am just happy you included cast info!!

anyway thats all my complaining done I think.. great work everywhere else!!

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-29, 08:53

@nick888
movie/ep view is available for tv shows. If you are talking about strictly the files view then no, not gonna happen. I haven't messed with watched/unwatched or the now playing info. If it is not working the way you would like then you need to take that up with djh. Also, I haven't decided if I am going to have cast photos, so don't hold your breath. I will though take a look at the visualizations screen.

Nick8888

2008-02-29, 09:08

ok cheers mate. I'll try and implement them myself when I get abit of time.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-29, 09:39

Thought about it for a bit and it does seem odd not to have a watched/unwatched button so I added one. I also fixed the visualizations texture. It should disappear with the rest of the info. Wish I could edit my posts so I don't have to keep adding links but here it is
http://rapidshare.com/files/95826307/aeonmod.rar.html

@nick888
I don't think you are giving the now playing panel enough time. If you keep watching it displays album, artist and song name.

Nick8888

2008-02-29, 10:13

Excellent. Very appreciative of your extra work. You were right, now playing info cycles on the left.
I thought it was supposed to be

Now Playing: Artist - Song 1.21/3.49

but now I see.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-29, 19:09

Guess I should have added Watched/Unwatched to both movies AND tvshows :blush: That is what i get for coding in a hurry. I will add the appropriate code and get it up on rapidshare when i get a chance.

Rand Al Thor

2008-02-29, 23:51

xboxkid

2008-03-01, 01:05

Nice job on the mod:grin:

The poster wall view is nice (in Movie Library view) but can only move icon around every 30 sec...very slooow!! It is better in the Music Library view..I guess due to less icons on the screen at the same time..I have 128 meg memory..Tried to change icon cache to 364 and then 512...didn't help...

Keep up the good work...

ewaterke

2008-03-03, 16:15

Hi,

Thanks for this mod.

I just have some thoughts about the Poster wall:
When the focus is set on the uper row (row 1) or the lower rower (row 3):
- I think that too much of the row 2 is hidden and don't find this very beautifull.
- We can not know what will come after if we are in row 3 and go down or if we are in row 1 and go up.

There ore I would like to know if it would be possible to have the focuss always in row 2 and move the whole wall up and down instead of moving the focus row. Of course this will result in having a first empty row 1 and at the end of the icons a last empty row in row 3

To avoid those empty rows, can we imagine:
- to have focus on row 1 only for the first icons
- have focus in row 2 with scrolling up and down of the whole wall for the icons in the middle
- have focus in row 3 only for the last row of icons ?

I have no idea how difficult it would be to implement this but I think that this might improve the Poster wall experience.

Regards,

Eric

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-03, 18:10

Personally, I am quite happy with the action/movement of the posterwall. djh put in a lot of time experimenting with different things, many of which you suggested. Wall views are just hard to work with. The scheme he used was his best and final solution, the scheme I used was mine. Between the two you should be able to find something that suits your needs. The only thing really *negotiable* is i might shrink the size of the focused items so that the info popup can be used and perhaps it will cut down on memory issues on the xbox. If i do change the sizes though it will probably not be for a while. I am running desperately low on free time at the moment. Cheers.

shanedoyle

2008-03-03, 18:19

@ Rand al Thor - Brilliant brilliant mod thanks for your time and effort, really appreciate the effort..

Shane

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-03, 18:58

@shanedoyle
Are you running on the xbox or linux/osx? Like i mentioned before I am interested in seeing how the wall performs on the xbox. Thanks for the kind words.

sickboy719

2008-03-03, 19:47

I haven't had any issues with the wall since I switched to 720p.

And Rand, as a wise man would say, this skin is truly Scrumtrulescent.
I can't find a better word for it.
Thanks for the hard work.

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-03, 19:56

Scrumtrulescent.

Well I am assuming that is a good thing ;) Thanks.

NotShorty

2008-03-09, 09:27

My default skin + mod. Wonderful job, thanks x infinity!

If I had to offer constructive criticism;

1. Music "album" view is 100% opaque with the selected album zoomed, but Movies "tiled" view is opaque for selected and translucent for non-selected. This is kind of inconsistent, and I'd love to see 100% opaque + zoom for Movie covers, to better match the Music album view.

2. In Music "album" view, there's a tiny gap between the bottom of the album art and the transparent CD case when an album is selected (I can grab a screenshot if you don't know what I'm talking about). I know that technically there IS a gap just like that on "real" CDs, but it may look better without it.

But yeah, I love this mod and I'd be totally happy whether or not you take my suggestions :nod:

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-09, 20:58

Thanks for the kind words. Actually if you take a screencap of what you are talking about I might take a look at it. If fanart gets added to the skinning engine I will definitely be working on this mod again ;)

NotShorty

2008-03-09, 21:39

It's more obvious on some color combinations than others. Yeah, in real life this is how it would look because CD inserts have to be slightly smaller than the jewel case to fit, but for xbmc purposes, it might look better without that gap.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4464/example1qg4.jpg
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/1311/example2hg9.jpg

NotShorty

2008-03-09, 22:07

What the heck, here's another idea just since I thought of it... The CD jewel case looks great, but there's not an exact equivalent for Movie posters. Below is a DVD cover with an embossed edge (original on left).
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9830/fightclubsi5.jpg

Although now that I look at it, the frosted glass border that you have in your posterwall view looks really great too. So glass border + zoom for selected items in "tiled" views for both Movies and Music (without clear jewel case) would look dang good.

Wow, I guess this is why I'm not a skinner - there are too many possibilities!!!

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-10, 08:28

Ahh, I see what you mean about the cd cases. I will have a look at that when i get a chance. I don't really know how it would look to add glass to the tiled views but I might give it a try just to see. Don't expect anything real soon. If it happens it will probably be after there is some sort of fanart support so I can kill two birds with one stone. Cheers.

jaredharley

2008-03-10, 19:35

It looks to me (without looking at the code or trying it for myself, so feel free to tell me to shut up when I'm wrong...) like it's just a matter of the CD cover images trying to retain their aspect ratio. I'll bet that stretching the cd image to fit won't mess up the look of the image at all, since it'll only be a few pixels.

NotShorty

2008-03-10, 22:40

Don't expect anything real soon.

Like I said, it's probably my default either way. Heck, it must be good; Aeon hasn't been changed in a while, no one other than yourself has made a mod, and NOBODY is nagging for updates!:nod:

NS

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-11, 02:30

Well I am a bit of a perfectionist so I do thank you for pointing it out ;) I am glad you like the mod as well. I hope others are getting some use out of it too. I did it mainly because these are the views that I liked.

@jaredharley
you may very well be right. I will have to look at the code and see if I have an aspect=keep in there somewhere.

Livin

2008-03-16, 01:47

Rand,
Any updates?

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-16, 21:16

No updates yet, I'm waiting for fanart support before I start changing things again. I'm thinking we won't need the banners to fade in anymore if we have fullscreen fanart for each tv show. However, it might be nice to have the show name appear somewhere as it is currently only displayed on the banners. Hmmm. I will mull it over for a while and see what happens. After fanart support makes it into the trunk expect that plus some bug fixes and maybe a few more bells and whistles. Cheers.

bionic1234

2008-03-18, 09:09

The watched/unwatched button now appears in movies AND in tvshows only at the episode level. I was planning on having it available at the season level as well but it seems that even if all the episodes in a season have been marked as watched the season still shows up. If there is a work around I would be willing to add that.

http://rapidshare.com/files/96002921/aeonmod1.1.rar.html

Hi Rand Al Thor great mod of the AEON skin. Quick question for you, should I be seeing any notification when selection a TV episode or Movie as Watched/Unwatched?
ie; like the checkmark in XTV or PMIII?

BTW: just a quick tip for anyone using AEON skin "Home Page shortcuts". If you want a link to Music Videos library, create a source in Video files (ie; Music Videos) and use the location videodb://3/2/ (videodb:// = library, 3 = Music Videos, 2 = Title) I associated to CLIPS Home Page shortcut in the AEON setup page (ie; Music Videos) - the name in AEON setup page must match the source in Video files exactly

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-18, 09:25

agathorn

2008-03-18, 15:35

Hey, thanks for the kind words. In answer to your question, no there are no check marks. I might consider adding checkmarks at some point in the future though. hmm. so much to do and so little time ;)

Just add an image with an infolabel of ListItem.Overlay into the control. Its actually really quick and easy to do if you just use the default checkmark. Its when you want a custom image that it becomes a PITA :)

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-18, 18:06

Figured it wouldn't be too horrible to accomplish. I will add that to my list for the next release. Thanks again agathorn.

Livin

2008-03-20, 09:07

Rand,
Did you get a chance to look at the code I sent you that swaps the weather info/image & date/time?

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-20, 10:08

As a matter of fact I did. I had the weather image working expect for it would go out of sync eventually and appear while the time was on screen. The way it is displayed right now is not very conducive to showing the weather image. After that it kind of fell by the wayside when i started working on the wall views. I am skinning again though so I will take a look at it when i get a chance. If i can't find an easy way to do it might add the weather to the lower left hand side of the home screen like skunkmonkee's previous mod. Right now I am waiting on the original images to create my own textures.xpr and for fanart support to be added to the svn. After that, expect a new release.

dja1ien

2008-03-22, 02:10

I downloaded this mod because I absolutely love the look of aeon but I missed the trailers feature. Unfortunately, we like the "posters" view from the original aeon skin the best, and that view appears to be missing from this mod. Any possibility of getting it added back in? I know your work has centered around the poster wall, just thought I would ask :)

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-22, 19:25

The Posters view you speak of is still in file mode. Since I don't actually use the view I am not going to add it back into the mod. That being said the view does still "exist" it is just not enabled. If you want to add <include>Common_WrapList_Info</include> to the other includes in myvideonav.xml it should display without any problems.

Rand Al Thor

2008-03-24, 02:14

Had a chance to work a little bit today. I fixed the issue with the album covers leaving a gap in album view. Thanks for pointing that one out to me. I have also spent some time working on a few little surprises I have been tossing around in my head. I'm still waiting to hear back from djh about the original textures. I should be done with the next phase of the mod this week, however I am going to hold off on the release until fanart has been implemented completely.

bionic1234

2008-03-27, 07:31

Just wondering if anyone else has attempted to add Music Videos as a Home Shortcut? I have added a source in Videos and pointed "Music Videos" at videodb://3/2/ to take me to show all Music Videos in Library, but since the AEON skin sees this as a "Files" mode home shortcut, the selectable Views are not that great for Music Videos, it would be better if I could get the skin to use Library mode for Music Videos, but I can't seem to figure it out.

Rand Al Thor

2008-04-01, 22:20

Fanart is done. I am working on a solution for adding the Tv series name to the page. It looks a little redundant to have the banner show up with an image of the full cast and then also have the full cast show up as the main fanart image. So right now my options are to just list the Tv series name somewhere on the page, or I am trying to convince szori to add logos to thetvdb.com so I could then just stamp the shows logo in the corner of each page. Basically it would be the shows name in the show's custom fonts and colors with no other artwork. Please show some support for this on thetvdb forums and maybe we can get the feature added.
I am also working on "prettying" up the mythtv views. Now that it is supported by all platforms I figure it deserves a little more attention on the skinning side. Weather icons are now shown on the homepage. They appear in the lower left corner as in the old mod because the way it was being called currently only allowed text. I have added a button in the settings menu to turn this feature on/off.
I am still waiting on the original artwork from djh so i can finish adding all the default images. Sorry it is taking longer than I had hoped but some of the delay is not my fault. Cheers.

Rand Al Thor

2008-04-10, 03:25

Here is an update. I couldn't finish some of the things I had hoped to do. I never could get a hold of the original aeon images so music is the only thing that has a custom image if no image is available. Lots of other little changes have been made. Most of them for myth integration. I also streamlined the views so only views that look "right" show up under each section. Similar to what Jezz_x has done with PMIII.

http://rapidshare.com/files/106246371/aeonmod2.rar.html

That should be all of the files necessary. Let me know if there are any issues. Also feel free to leave input if you use the mod. Please don't give feature requests because this is going to be my last aeon mod. I am planning on making my own skin but that won't be for quite a while. Cheers.

Mineral

2008-04-10, 16:27

First of all I love Aeon and these mods. They have been my default skin forever. I love the way you implemented fan art and fixed up a bunch of things. Just a few points following the update:

1. Am I missing something or have all the arcade and game views been removed? It was always nice to see pictures of the game covers rather than the list view.

2. I can't seem to be able to see any of the new music views. I have tried a few fresh installs and cleared guisettings etc but no luck.

3. Is it possible to change the image for the Live TV button or just the folder?

Anyway I know you said you weren't going to be working on these mods anymore, just thought I'd see if these things were just issues from my end.

Thanks again Rand.

ewaterke

2008-04-10, 18:36

Hi Rand,

Thanks for this great Mod.

I've just noticed a small bug: In TV shows, when you go back (let's say from episode level to season level), there is no focus on any item.
This means that you have to go one time left to get focus on the upper menu and one more time left to get focus on the season.

Same problem when you go back from Season level to TV show level.

I woul expect that when I go back, the focused item is the last focused item from this view.

I hope you undertsend what I try to explain.

One other strange thing is with the Fanart. For most of my show it's working well but for some shows, the fanart picture doesn't appear when I select this show. (exemple: for 24, in the info window I select the fanart, I select the picture that I want and exit the window). When I then select the show, I stay with the AEON background and not the fanart that I had selected.

Hope that you can help me with thos 2 "bugs".

Thanks for your work,

Eric

Rand Al Thor

2008-04-10, 20:18

1. Am I missing something or have all the arcade and game views been removed? It was always nice to see pictures of the game covers rather than the list view.

2. I can't seem to be able to see any of the new music views. I have tried a few fresh installs and cleared guisettings etc but no luck.

3. Is it possible to change the image for the Live TV button or just the folder?

1. I just checked by grabbing a fresh copy of aeon and overwriting. Games, arcade etc have list, wide, and poster views.

2. Music views work as well. Not really sure what the issue is there.

3. Live tv must be pointed at a folder. I point it at my tv folder. I could have included a default image but I never really got around to it. My bad.

I would suggest getting a fresh copy of aeon, going to guisettings and completely deleting all settings related to aeon and starting fresh. Let me know if that helps.

Hi Rand,

Thanks for this great Mod.

I've just noticed a small bug: In TV shows, when you go back (let's say from episode level to season level), there is no focus on any item.
This means that you have to go one time left to get focus on the upper menu and one more time left to get focus on the season.

Same problem when you go back from Season level to TV show level.

I woul expect that when I go back, the focused item is the last focused item from this view.

I hope you undertsend what I try to explain.

One other strange thing is with the Fanart. For most of my show it's working well but for some shows, the fanart picture doesn't appear when I select this show. (exemple: for 24, in the info window I select the fanart, I select the picture that I want and exit the window). When I then select the show, I stay with the AEON background and not the fanart that I had selected.

Hope that you can help me with thos 2 "bugs".

Thanks for your work,

Eric

Hey eric, I just noticed what you are talking about in tvshows. Instead of me making a whole new build open myvideonav.xml and about three lines down where it says <defaultcontrol>2</defaultcontrol> change that value to 50 and let me know if that fixes it. That is strange because for some reason i thought that if "remember position on forward navigation" was set that it would remember the position on reverse nave as well. Oh well. As for the fanart issue, if it is working on some shows then I suspect it is not a skin issue. All of the shows use the same xml so nothing changes between the simpsons and 24. Catch my drift?

djh_

2008-04-10, 20:27

@Rand: I'm apologising in advance for this, but the next version of AEON is going to be a tough one for you. While I'm leaving the PAL and PAL16X9 folders in, most of my efforts have been in porting everything to new 720p and 1080i folders, mostly the former. The textures have been mostly redrawn to HD as well, while the background panel for the media views has been split in two then joined in a group, for the benefit of Mac users suffering a texture overrun issue.

In short, your mod will need an overhaul. If it's any consolation, I have created an Excel doc that calculates 720p, 1080i and 1080p metrics when you enter SD ones. Let me know if you'd like it, not that it makes the whole procedure any less murderous.

Mineral

2008-04-10, 21:49

Hi Rand,

I completely deleted my guisettings file and grabbed a fresh copy of Aeon9a and copied over it with your mod.

All issues seem resolved except for the music views. I can only see list, list info, album, coverflow, photowall in the library artist view. Is this normal?

Thanks for your quick response and all your hard work.

ewaterke

2008-04-10, 21:57

Rand,

I changed the <defaultcontrol>. it's better but not perfect.
When I go up, there is still no focuss (ex: for "season view" no season is highlighted and the thumb of the season is not displayed).

If I press down (or up, or left, ...), the focuss is then set on the correct item and the thumb appears.

It's already better because before first focuss was set on the Menu.

Rand Al Thor

2008-04-10, 22:53

@djh
Thanks for the heads up, like i said earlier though i think this is going to be my last aeon mod. I'm going to write my own skin. It will however have some "aeonish" characteristics as you have definitely set the bar for all skins from here on out. Thanks again djh.

@mineral
List, listinfo, album, coverflow and photowall are not enough views? Or are you saying that they only show up in files view?

@ewaterke
Well I'm sure it is something I did. It works properly in files view. If I come up with a solution I will let you know. Cheers.

Rand Al Thor

2008-04-11, 00:50

http://rapidshare.com/files/106485584/aeonmod2.1.rar.html

That should fix the weirdness on browsing back. I did have to add a few of the other views back in but nothing major.

djh_

2008-04-11, 01:55

@djh
Thanks for the heads up, like i said earlier though i think this is going to be my last aeon mod. I'm going to write my own skin. It will however have some "aeonish" characteristics as you have definitely set the bar for all skins from here on out. Thanks again djh.

And thanks to you for doing the mods in the first place; clearly, there are a lot of people who enjoy them. Maybe someone will take over from you when you move on.

Livin

2008-04-11, 06:33

Nick8888

2008-04-11, 06:53

@djh
Maybe you can integrate his mods in when you redo AEON? Honestly, I like the skin but the mods take the skin from an 8 to a 10. They make a huge difference in usability. Please consider.

Yes, the mods are great, largely due to the additional views.

However, I would love to see djh get Aeon to a stage where it is feature complete and ready for a stable (as currently possible) release, even if this means compromising on the additional views for the time being.

djh_

2008-04-11, 14:51

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't have the time to implement mods while working on the skin proper. Nor do I particularly have the inclination. I don't want this becoming an all-singing, all-dancing glut of views and ideas; that's what mods are for. This latest texture upgrade and resizing process will essentially complete most the views, especially in terms of dimensions. That should be all someone needs to either update Rand's mod or come up with their own alternative, either of which would be more or less future-proof.

hired goon

2008-04-12, 01:39

I'd like the rotation of background images on the home menu to be a bit faster, but I'm not sure how to do it.

I see there are a bunch of multiimage controls in home2.xml with "<timeperimage>20000</timeperimage>" elements.

Do I simply decrease these values, or is there a another way?

djh_

2008-04-12, 02:43

Go to Backgrounds.xml and change the values there.

hired goon

2008-04-12, 03:07

Go to Backgrounds.xml and change the values there.
Thanks. Works beaut.

hired goon

2008-04-12, 15:37

When I list an album in "list" view in "file" mode then each track is shown as "number - artist - title".

What do I need to modify to get the track duration shown as well (as done in PMIII, etc)

thenut

2008-04-12, 19:16

Goon: Press Up on the main menu to get to the settings bar and select Music. When that menu opens up navigate to the "tab" that has the naming template. Enter %D to add the duration. There are a few other variables you can enter here as well.

hired goon

2008-04-13, 01:13

Enter %D to add the duration.
I already had "%D" for the "track naming template right" setting, which is why other skins such as PMIII would show track duration in the right of the UI. But I guess Aeon ignores this setting?

I had to add %D to the normal track naming template to get track lengths displayed (which is fine, unless I change skins).

thenut

2008-04-13, 04:08

Indeed. Aeon has a different layout so the "Track Naming Template Right" doesn't apply.

lingenfr_xbmc

2008-04-13, 05:53

Rand,

Did I understand that you have added buttons for elepus myth project? If so, what is the last version of AEON that your mod will work with?

Rand Al Thor

2008-04-13, 18:50

my mod works with the latest released version.

lingenfr_xbmc

2008-04-13, 22:04

Did I understand that you have added buttons for elepus myth project?

I loaded the latest AEON from his website last night and the latest version of you mod. I agree with others, it is pretty spiffy. I did not see anything different with respect to livetv, etc. I also had a hard time reading the small print. I want to play with it some more as I agree it has great potential. Please put a livetv button on the main page.

Rand Al Thor

2008-04-14, 07:36

I loaded the latest AEON from his website last night and the latest version of you mod. I agree with others, it is pretty spiffy. I did not see anything different with respect to livetv, etc. I also had a hard time reading the small print. I want to play with it some more as I agree it has great potential. Please put a livetv button on the main page.

There is a livetv button on the homescreen. You just have to enable it in the aeon settings menu. A bit of searching or reading of the changelog in the mod would have shown that. Glad you like it though. Cheers.

lingenfr_xbmc

2008-04-14, 13:11

There is a livetv button on the homescreen. You just have to enable it in the aeon settings menu. A bit of searching or reading of the changelog in the mod would have shown that. Glad you like it though. Cheers.

Thanks for the help. Scolding deserved. I did search before I posted, but I missed the note in the changelog. The fonts in the sub menus are a bit small. I am still searching, but I checked the normal place in settings and xephyr is the only font selection. Thanks again.

sickboy719

2008-05-02, 01:23

Am I missing something on enabling fanart with thor's mod? I can't seem to get it working.

sickboy719

2008-05-02, 01:32

Nevermind. Pardon me for being a big fat tard.

HitecDevil

2008-05-07, 00:25

hello i wanted to ask shortly how big are your dvd covers/posters? thanks for your hard work on the mods!! keep it up!

benderbends

2008-05-16, 11:59

how do i install the mod?

i downloaded Aeon9a from aeonismine.com
i downloaded the mod2.1

now what?

Hitcher

2008-05-16, 17:03

Extract them both and then copy/overwrite all the mod files to the AEON folder.

xeonicxpression

2008-05-16, 17:47

Extract them both and then copy/overwrite all the mod files to the AEON folder.

or do like I did and make a copy of the AEON folder and rename it something like AEON Thor Mod and then drop the mod files in there. That way if he doesn't like the mod or wants the option of flipping back and forth he can.

benderbends

2008-05-17, 04:02

bugman72

2008-05-17, 09:38

xeonicxpression

2008-05-17, 17:27

thats what i did....but the theme is greyed out in the selection menu.

i downloaded Aeon9a and uncompressed the folder.
i took the Aeon folder and duplicated it.
Now i have Aeon folder, and Aeon Mod folder.

i downloaded the 2.1 mod and uncompressed it.
i deleted the changelog.txt
i copppied the contents of the media folder (all .png's) and placed them into the media folder of Aeon Mod and kept the original textures file in there.

i then coppied the pal and pal 16x9 contents into their respective folders...overwriting any file that it was replacing.

when i go o the selection menu for skins....Aeon Mod is greyed out, but Aeon works fine.

btw...im on a mac in case that matters....thought it shouldnt because you are not saying to "build" the skin.

Don't quite know what to tell you. Although you are over complicating it just a bit.

1. uncompress the mod file and you should get a folder called aeon, but lets just call it mod to make things a bit more clear.

2. duplicate the Aeon folder in your skin folder and name it whatever you want (lets use Aeon Thor)

3. Finally just drop the contents of the mod folder (it should contain media, PAL, and PAL16x9 folders) into your Aeon Thor folder and just say yes to any files that it wants to overwrite.

You don't need to copy the contents of each folder one by one, just drop all of the folders in and you are done. I can't speak for mac, since I'm using the linux version, but like you said it shouldn't matter. I actually just redid mine and worked fine for me. Good luck and let us know if you get it to work.

Rand Al Thor

2008-05-17, 18:50

Maybe this has been done and I can't figure out how to enable it, but is there any way to make a button or keymap so that when you are viewing a movie, you don't have to hit the white button, then movie information in order to view the trailer? It would be really nice to be able to either select a "Play Trailer" option or keymap a button to automatically launch the IMDB scraper trailer for the highlighted feature. I'll admit that I'm just diving into the realm of configuring XBMC, so I apologize if this is something that is easy and quite obvious.

Shouldn't be too hard. Look through the xbmc wiki on the section for adding a button. IMHO you would be best adding it to the bar across the top that lets you choose between library, views, etc. You would probably want to add a conditional visibility to it so it is only visible when browsing movies. Or you could edit keymap.xml and code a button to do the same procedure. I don't actually remember of the top of my head what the line of code is that calls trailers but a search of the changelog or a look at the videoinfodialog.xml in my mod will point you in the right direction.

benderbends

2008-05-18, 05:54

Don't quite know what to tell you. Although you are over complicating it just a bit.

1. uncompress the mod file and you should get a folder called aeon, but lets just call it mod to make things a bit more clear.

2. duplicate the Aeon folder in your skin folder and name it whatever you want (lets use Aeon Thor)

3. Finally just drop the contents of the mod folder (it should contain media, PAL, and PAL16x9 folders) into your Aeon Thor folder and just say yes to any files that it wants to overwrite.

You don't need to copy the contents of each folder one by one, just drop all of the folders in and you are done. I can't speak for mac, since I'm using the linux version, but like you said it shouldn't matter. I actually just redid mine and worked fine for me. Good luck and let us know if you get it to work.

i just did that and it still has the Aeon Thor option greyed out.
i dont know why for the life of me that this isnt working.

can someone post the "FULL" Aeon Thor skin on rapidshare so i can download a full skin that should work. then i can compare to see why mine us not working....or maybe it is some wierd connection to the mac.

jessenoonan@mac

2008-05-18, 06:12

Benderbends, I think the problem is that when you overwrite a folder on a mac, it doesn't merge the files, it just overwrites the old folder with the new one. So, when you moved those folders, you lost a bunch of xmls and the textures.xpr and maybe some other stuff. Go back and compare those 3 folders in your Aeon and Aeon Thor Mod (or whatever you called yours) and copy over any files from the originals that aren't in your modded version. Worked for me just now when I was having the same problem.

Another vagary of the mac is that when I registered just now, I ended up naming myself jessenoonan@mac, cause I didn't notice Safari trying to autocomplete the field. And now my name is... dorkier than I had intended... oh well.

benderbends

2008-05-18, 06:32

dteirney

2008-05-18, 12:38

Not sure whether this is related to this Mod or not, but when you choose to delete a recording the filename is overlayed over some other text so it's really hard to read. I think it needs to be moved to the right of whatever text it is being overlaid.

Also, when deleting it seems to just display the actual filename on disk, which doesn't really mean much. Is there anyway it can display the name as it appears in the Recording section? I just deleted the wrong thing and aren't sure how as I'm almost positive the correct thing was highlighted in the list.

bugman72

2008-05-20, 18:23

Shouldn't be too hard. Look through the xbmc wiki on the section for adding a button. IMHO you would be best adding it to the bar across the top that lets you choose between library, views, etc. You would probably want to add a conditional visibility to it so it is only visible when browsing movies. Or you could edit keymap.xml and code a button to do the same procedure. I don't actually remember of the top of my head what the line of code is that calls trailers but a search of the changelog or a look at the videoinfodialog.xml in my mod will point you in the right direction.

Ideally, that is what I want to do (button) instead of a keymap. I'm just not familiar enough with how to customize the GUI. I did a bit of looking around on the WIKI but the "Add Button" section doesn't seem to be complete. I would love to learn how to do this, but without a good how-to, I'm stuck :sniffle: I've also tried to find the videoinfodialog.xml file from your mod file and can't find it in any of the directories. I looked at the original mod file as well as the 2.1 version.

Sorry if I seem like an idiot. I haven't gotten into much coding in the past and I'm just not sure where to start.

Rand Al Thor

2008-05-20, 18:43

Oops, I listed it wrong. It is dialogvideoinfo.xml That should have the code for movie trailers. As far as learning to skin just start where I did. Open some skin files with a text editor and start tinkering. Increase/decrease a few values and see what happens. Once you have a *basic* knowledge of how the thing works you can get more ambitious. Anytime you hit a wall a search of the wiki or forums will usually answer your question. Cheers.

bugman72

2008-05-20, 19:21

I think I've found the code, but don't want to clutter up this thread with my questions. Would it be OK if I were to either PM you or email you?

neal73

2008-05-20, 23:15

Thor, you seem to be the best person to ask....

What needs to be changed if I wanted to move the weather to the top left of the main screen and the main scroll bar to the bottom? Being in the centre ruins quite a few of the wallpapers. Maybe if it was a bit more transparent it'd better?

dteirney

2008-05-21, 11:54

The photorealistic backdrop images I created specifically for the Aeon skin have now been released.

The series of backdrop images includes one specifically for Live TV.

For screenshots and download information go to http://www.teirney.net/blog/2008/05/21/photeon-backdrops-for-xbmc-aeon-skin-released/

Rand Al Thor

2008-05-21, 18:23

Nice one! Thanks dteirney ;)

dteirney

2008-06-01, 07:52

The brand new ALPHA10 version of the Aeon skin has just been released. I haven't installed it yet because I'm pretty sure the aeonmod for LiveTV will be broken.

Rand Al Thor, are you planning on migrating the LiveTV changes for the new version of the Aeon skin???

Rand Al Thor

2008-06-01, 18:54

Nope. I am now working on a skin of my own It will have some Aeonish features (as well as some fusion, backrow, vison2ish features). I won't give a release date because I am pretty swamped right now and I can't work on it nearly as much as I would like.

dteirney

2008-06-02, 12:37

bugman72

2008-06-02, 16:38

I don't know if this is fully worthy of adding to this thread, but I figured that since it is a MOD to AEON, I'd throw it out there. As some of you may have read, I've been trying to figure out how to add a dedicated button to the Movie Library to view the scraped trailer from IMDB. After some trudging, I finally have a finished product that I like. While this might not be that difficult to do for most, this was my first attempt at modding a skin.

So, without further ado, here is the code to add a "Trailer" button to the top menu when viewing a library title. There is no longer a need to go into the Movie Information screen to be able to see the trailer button and all that is required is to highlight the title desired and then move to the top menu.

AEON Trailer Button (http://pastebin.com/m608f6ccc)

Weavus

2008-06-02, 16:43

AEON Trailer Button (http://pastebin.com/m608f6ccc)
Have you tested this with the latest Aeon Alpha 10 build?

Rand Al Thor

2008-06-02, 20:17

@Rand Al Thor
If you've have a look at the ALPHA10 release, do you have any advice on the simplest way to be able to play Myth TV content?

For the moment I'd be happy with a way to launch from the home page, the ability to play recordings and to then delete them. That will keep the WAF high.

I thought about hijacking the Clips menu entry, but I couldn't get the top level Live TV, Guide and Recordings entries to show (it's possible there's a problem with Clips as someone else posted that they were having problems with normal videos).

If djh is working on the new version of Aeon, and you're working on a new skin I'd rather not be stuck using something that isn't going forward when such great stuff is being added to XBMC.

Any rough timeframe for when the skin you're working on will be available so I know whether to look more into hacking something together myself in Aeon, e.g. months, weeks? I'm assuming there will be native support for Myth TV?

You seem to be on the right track. You can easily change the name of one of the existing buttons (clips is a good choice as it links to "files" view) in the homescrollers.xml. If there is a problem with the views associated with clips though you might want to wait for the fix djh has talked about for later today before you try anything else. That should at least give you a working myth/livetv button on the homepage. As for finding a myth specific view that will work for you that is another story. If non of djh's default views will work for you specific needs you will have some work to do. Adding/changing views conditionally is much more complicated and involved than changing a homescroller button. Honestly, if you are so happy with the alpha9 mod why don't you just keep using that? I know djh has released a new version but from what I have seen there aren't any showstoping new features. Mostly just 1080 textures. Is the difference that noticeable?

As for my skin. It will be mainly for linux/windows users. I do not say this to exclude anyone but unfortunately some of the things that I want out of the skin will be too much for the good old xbox. It *might* work fine on the xbox but I am not going to go out of my way to make it compatible considering I only use the Linux and windows builds currently. To answer your question. Yes, it will have myth specific views.

As for a release date I am *hoping* for a late summer release. Don't count on it though. I want to wait to see what comes of the epg summer of code project so that I can include that in the skin as well. Hopefully, this will open up possibilities for xbmc to interface with other programs besides just myth. I would also like to design a matching webskin. Most importantly though I have a ton of coding to do and not a lot of free time. This skin is going to be first and foremost for my own purposes. I will not compromise on anything. My goal is to have a ui that is easy enough for my elderly relatives to use having never used it before and to design something that visually would not look out of place in an upscale museum/art gallery. I will not add any features that I feel "cheapen" the look of the ui. Which means, don't expect a flashy skin with glowing, blinking buttons or provocative background images. I also won't add any features that I won't personally use.

I guess that sums it up for now. Feel free to post questions and ideas but again don't be upset if your feature/request doesn't make it into the skin.

Hitcher

2008-06-02, 21:03

Honestly, if you are so happy with the alpha9 mod why don't you just keep using that?

Might be a problem if he's deleted it, unless it's available elsewhere.

djh_

2008-06-02, 21:04

I've still got it. I'll put it back up alongside the new one.

bugman72

2008-06-02, 23:58

Have you tested this with the latest Aeon Alpha 10 build?

I haven't tried it with the latest build. I might give it a go in the next day or so to see if it works.

dteirney

2008-06-03, 12:15

Honestly, if you are so happy with the alpha9 mod why don't you just keep using that? I know djh has released a new version but from what I have seen there aren't any showstoping new features. Mostly just 1080 textures. Is the difference that noticeable?

There's some parts that have been finished in the latest release. For example the video and audio menus now appear to work, and the keyboard for text entry is heaps better. There's also better feedback when skipping to let you know how far through you are.

More and more stuff will get finished with each release and I still run into various things that aren't quite "there". For example, some of the dynamic text still appears over static, e.g. when deleting a file. I'm hoping all these will get tidied up over time.

As for my skin. It will be mainly for linux/windows users. I do not say this to exclude anyone but unfortunately some of the things that I want out of the skin will be too much for the good old xbox. It *might* work fine on the xbox but I am not going to go out of my way to make it compatible considering I only use the Linux and windows builds currently. To answer your question. Yes, it will have myth specific views.

Yay! Myth specific views.

My goal is to have a ui that is easy enough for my elderly relatives to use having never used it before and to design something that visually would not look out of place in an upscale museum/art gallery. I will not add any features that I feel "cheapen" the look of the ui.

Sounds great. A skin that my partner can easily use is what I'm looking for. We ending up just using the Favourites in the PMIII skin at which point all the other stuff on the home page was useless. Aeon in part solved that problem, but without a single click access to the TV recordings that's a bit of a show stopper. It's a pity more of this great myth:// protocol stuff isn't somehow making it into the default XBMC skin. The default media library handling capabilities for the native MythTV front end is a bit lack luster so I'm hoping XBMC which rocks at that will do great stuff after the GSoC project for the EPG etc.

Feel free to post questions and ideas but again don't be upset if your feature/request doesn't make it into the skin.

Where is the best place to post questions and ideas? Are you starting a new thread (or have I just not found it).

Rand Al Thor

2008-06-03, 18:49

I do not have a separate thread started as of yet. I hesitate to do so until I have some screen caps to show. So, until that point feel free to post here.

dteirney

2008-06-04, 13:58

@Rand Al Thor

By hijacking the Clips menu and pointing to a Source pointing to myth://192.168.x.x I can access Live TV, the Guide and the Recordings. Saweet. Probably enough for now.

I do miss the views that you put together though. Having a list and seeing the snapshot thumbnail of the recording and the EPG details like plot line etc. was actually quite useful.

The views that you put together look like they could be redone by copying the views that Aeon is using for the Movie Library and adjusting the labels and ListItem attributes that are used.

Wiring in a view looks complicated though. I thought the skinning engine would deal with more of the workflow of which views to display based on what is chosen but it looks like lots of flags being checked in the visible field to do some of that magic. Lots of includes all over the place as well.

Where's the best place to learn more about this???

Rand Al Thor

2008-06-04, 17:07

you can check the wiki for info on how conditionals and listitems are used. However, I found it easier when I was first starting to just find a view that I really liked, open the xml, and start tinkering. I learn better by doing I guess. Cheers.

Rand Al Thor

2008-08-05, 21:32

As I have mentioned before I am working on a skin of my own. Unfortunately, progress is slow. I would expect to be done before Christmas this coming year but can't guarantee that. Since my skin is still in the early stages AEON is still my default skin. I have made a few slight modifications that, for me at least, keep the skin in it's well deserved place as my default skin. Mostly these changes are things that make it easier for me to navigate and find the information that I am looking for. I had hesitated making a mod since these were all changes that seemed to work for me and might not be useful for others. However, in the spirit of community I decided to share the thing anyway. This is based on Aeon14.

http://rapidshare.com/files/135070736/Aeonmod.rar.html

This is the whole skin as I have changed so many files I don't remember now which ones have changed and which are the same. Please DELETE the entire contents of your Aeon skin folder and replace or make a new skin called AEONMOD. Do not just overwrite your existing skin. Also, before posting any issues make sure you have DELETED all aeon related skin settings in guisettings.xml. Do not just hit the reset button. Many of the changes I have made will cause strange behavior if you do not remove all of these settings.

Changes:
Added slide-in info to list views
List view now displays appropriate aspect for episodes
All video info windows have more information added. ie episode info, tv show synopsis etc etc.
Current Weather Temp displays in the appropriate location
I have added more music views. These are similar to the older mod views.
Trailers button now shows only when trailer is present, when no trailer a blank button shows so the panel does not look like it is a kid missing a tooth.
Wall View are now truly "borderless" and scroll infinitely vertically.
Aeon Setting option for "wall info" this applies only to Movie Wall. Please enable the setting and let me know what you think.
Pictures target can now be set in Aeon Settings.
Comics and Pictures now link to appropriate sections.
Comics window now displays Comics backgrounds.
I'm sure there is more but I can't think of it right now...

Suggestions and feedback are always welcome. However, since this mod was only originally intended for my private use and I am not getting paid for this, please respect the fact that I AM UNDER NO OBLIGATION to add/change/modify anything simply because you think it would be better for you. Please do not PM me with questions/comments/help requests. Any of these can be posted here and I will do my best to get to them as time permits. Cheers.

Livin

2008-08-05, 23:28

Rand, you rock.

I sure how Duncan will integrate your mod into the core!

Rand Al Thor

2008-08-05, 23:34

Glad you like it. Constructive feedback is always welcome ;) What did you think of the "wall info" option?

UND3R ACHI3V3R

2008-08-06, 00:41

Will you be adding any type of banner view for TV?

Rand Al Thor

2008-08-06, 01:23

Will you be adding any type of banner view for TV?

Nope. I thought about it long and hard and I agree with DJH. It just doesn't make any sense to have a different shape for tv show icons than you do for movies. I had wondered about it when it first became popular but I guess I kind of just got used to it. It doesn't make sense because you have a long narrow box to work with so you get a lot of text and a sliver of image. I think it would be helpful if we could get the logos for tv shows. You know the shows name in the specific font/layout they use for the show with a transparent background. That could be incorporated into fanart views with great results.

Livin

2008-08-06, 05:54

Glad you like it. Constructive feedback is always welcome ;) What did you think of the "wall info" option?

I like the wall... it is VERY good.

Again, I hope Duncan merges your mods, and fixes!

pletopia

2008-08-06, 08:11

just installed your mod and wanted to say .. looking nice :)

i especially like the aspect ratio fix for episode thumbs and also the plot's inside info box's :)

pletopia

2008-08-06, 08:19

Rand Al Thor

2008-08-06, 18:40

oh .. i also forgot to say two more things ;)

i like the "moviewall info" setting and thx for fixing weather .. looking clean and readable :)
now if you could get it possible to change between the various cities that are in settings .. the weather screen would be perfect

Thanks for the kind words. I am a big fan of the movie wall. It works for me because there really are "no borders" and I like how the info zooms in on hover. It is basically just the movie info panel but it still looks nice.

What exactly do you mean by changing cities for wheather? Do you want it to change cities automatically or do you just mean the ability to change cities in general?

zeuss-axis

2008-08-06, 20:31

What exactly do you mean by changing cities for wheather? Do you want it to change cities automatically or do you just mean the ability to change cities in general?

I think he means that currently, only the 1st location in the weather settings is capable of being displayed; there's no mechanism for switching to the 2nd or 3rd in the list.

Rand Al Thor

2008-08-06, 21:10

Ahh right, now I see what you mean. I didn't even notice that before. It should be pretty easy to fix. I *might* also look into making a basic version of "kiosk mode" (wish I could come up with a more appropriate name for it though) as I have almost ironed out all of the kinks in it for my own skin. A few other neat additions have been made to the skinning engine in the last couple days that I might experiment with but that would mean you would need a bleeding edge build for them even to work.

Zeuss-axis gets a +1 for being a whiskey man. Although, I'm a single malt scotch man myself so we connoisseurs spell it "whisky" ;)

xb2iris

2008-08-06, 21:49

Rand, your skins gonna be one fit for the gods... or at least, thats what i think thor is... acording to the comics...u come up with a name yet? or is that i secret?

Ahh right, now I see what you mean. I didn't even notice that before. It should be pretty easy to fix. I *might* also look into making a basic version of "kiosk mode" (wish I could come up with a more appropriate name for it though) as I have almost ironed out all of the kinks in it for my own skin. A few other neat additions have been made to the skinning engine in the last couple days that I might experiment with but that would mean you would need a bleeding edge build for them even to work.

Zeuss-axis gets a +1 for being a whiskey man. Although, I'm a single malt scotch man myself so we connoisseurs spell it "whisky" ;)

Rand Al Thor

2008-08-06, 22:48

I do have a working name for it but I think I will hold off on that until I actually have something to show for it as well. As of right now my skin is basically all code. I am no artist so it is not very pretty yet, but this thing "does" a lot of things that no skin as of yet has done (although we have yet to see Media-Stream ;) ). I have a very good friend who is a phenomenal animator/gfx designer who has offered to do all the artwork for me when I get to that stage.

pletopia

2008-08-07, 00:17

I think he means that currently, only the 1st location in the weather settings is capable of being displayed; there's no mechanism for switching to the 2nd or 3rd in the list.

Thats exactly what i mean .. with PM3 you can change between cities 1, 2, and 3
in aeon you can't at the moment.

with the new movie wall .. my favorite part of it is that it's vertical and not horizontal .. this means beacuse most of us use widescreen aspect ratio's with the skin you can scroll through more movies faster

and with lots of movies this is very beneficial:)

michal

2008-08-07, 04:32

I *might* also look into making a basic version of "kiosk mode" (wish I could come up with a more appropriate name for it though)

Oh PLEASE do.

How about Safe, Protected, or Secure Mode?

Regards,
Michal

michal

2008-08-07, 04:59

Also, I'm curious if there any chance of a new Episode view which is a hybrid of the List and Episode views.

I find that the existing Episode view looks nice but is a bit cumbersome and a list based view that doesn't obscure so much of the screen and is largely transparent (or at least has low opacity background) would allow the fanart to be visible while still allowing the bottom half of the screen to have a vertically scrollable list with an episode image to the side.

Just a thought. I simpy don't think the horizontal scrolling works as well for episodes as it does at the top level.

Rand Al Thor

2008-08-07, 05:10

Yeah, I know what you mean. I have been working on something *similar* to that for my skin but I think with AEON it might be an easy fix. I will look into it but I don't want to put too much time into mods.

xb2iris

2008-08-07, 14:58

Sounds special... the force will be strong with your skin... and with the artist macnificanto joining ur team... it's even stronger... can't wait Rando!

I do have a working name for it but I think I will hold off on that until I actually have something to show for it as well. As of right now my skin is basically all code. I am no artist so it is not very pretty yet, but this thing "does" a lot of things that no skin as of yet has done (although we have yet to see Media-Stream ;) ). I have a very good friend who is a phenomenal animator/gfx designer who has offered to do all the artwork for me when I get to that stage.

neal73

2008-08-21, 10:30

Thor - did anything ever come of getting the weather to choose between the three preset areas?

Rand Al Thor

2008-08-21, 16:59

nope. I have been busy with real life stuff at the moment. I might get together one more mod for Aeon but I think I will wait and see what djh and thedevil cooked up before I do. Who knows, It might be too spectacular to even mod ;)

xb2iris

2008-08-21, 21:39

hahaha... mod coming this way soon enough...

idlerobbo

2008-09-02, 00:50

Rand... I have installed your skin (I absolutely love what you have done with the music section). However when I view tv shows and view an episode in showcase mode it doesn't show the image associated to the episode. It shows everything else fine - I even see a mirror image underneath of what should be displayed. This only happens when I hover over the episode and let it display the details...

Any ideas why?

idlerobbo

2008-09-05, 01:23

let me add a screenshot of for my last post. It's doing this:

http://img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot010ja7.png
http://img83.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot000mediumrd9.png

The image is there on non highlighted ones - you can even see it underneath as a mirror image - just not in the box

I have tried to clear out my skin setting - still the same... im stumped!

Rand Al Thor

2008-09-05, 04:10

other than the advice I have already given you regarding deleting all the aeon entries in advancedsettings.xml I don't really know why it would be doing that. It works fine here. If I get some time this weekend I will take a look at it but I can't promise anything.

idlerobbo

2008-09-05, 14:44

where is advancedsettings.xml? I foung a guisettings.xml but I couldn't locate the advancedsettings one...

rudeboyx

2008-09-05, 14:50

it doesnt exist by default. it is a user created xml file containing advanced personal settings. see online maual for full info

o_neill

2008-09-05, 14:51

Hi,

just wanted to say, my episode thumbs in showcase mode look exactly the same like yours, idlerobbo! The current item doesn't show the thumb.
I've installed the Aeon-Lite version for Xbox.

oFredo

2008-09-05, 15:37

Hi,

I had the very same problem with Atlantis alpha 4 and AEON alpha 14 with no mod and running under Windows.

Don't ask me how exactly, but now it is working.
I don't remember changing anything, beside the icon set, which I doubt is the case but anyway you could try to this if it is fixed.

Regards

Guttasej

2008-09-05, 15:37

had that too before. But it just solved itself after awhile, didn't touch or do a thing. Its a wierd bug :P

o_neill

2008-09-05, 15:47

Did somebody of you change the default thumbsize in the advancedsettings.xml? I set mine to 512 and wonder, if that could have to do with that bug.

Hitcher

2008-09-05, 16:18

The blank thumbs problem can be solved by resetting AEON in it's settings.

idlerobbo

2008-09-05, 17:14

i'll give that a go... thanks.

Rand Al Thor

2008-09-05, 17:37

@idlerobbo

I meant guisetttings.xml... sorry about that. Now that you mention it I seem to remember that when I first installed the original (unmodified) version of one of the aeon builds something like this occurred. However, as I have mentioned previously, it no longer seems to be an issue. Weird. Again, if I get time I might have a go at tracking it down. It will be hard though, considering I can't reproduce it.

o_neill

2008-09-05, 19:14

The blank thumbs problem can be solved by resetting AEON in it's settings.
Thanks Hitcher for the hint, but it did not work for me. I used the button "Reset all settings except folder paths".

What might be interesting: After the reset I discovered that this does not happen when in file mode (don't know if it was the ike this before). Only in the library in showcase mode the current episode thumb isn't displayed.

xb2iris

2008-09-05, 21:44

I bet you deleted certain backdrops since u set backdrop paths... what u need to do is re-assign all ur backdrop settings... i.e all of them... and that should solve the issue if it's not an "out of memory" issue... worked for me, and it should sort the problem for u... fingers crossed...

Thanks Hitcher for the hint, but it did not work for me. I used the button "Reset all settings except folder paths".

What might be interesting: After the reset I discovered that this does not happen when in file mode (don't know if it was the ike this before). Only in the library in showcase mode the current episode thumb isn't displayed.

Hitcher

2008-09-05, 23:42

[QUOTE=o_neill;217339]Thanks Hitcher for the hint, but it did not work for me. I used the button "Reset all settings except folder paths".QUOTE]

Try the other one.

xb2iris

2008-09-06, 01:51

hahahaha

o_neill

2008-09-06, 13:15

I bet you deleted certain backdrops since u set backdrop paths... what u need to do is re-assign all ur backdrop settings... i.e all of them... and that should solve the issue if it's not an "out of memory" issue... worked for me, and it should sort the problem for u... fingers crossed...

Try the other one.

I can't believe it, it works! One must definitely use the option to reset ALL Aeon settings, including backdrop paths. Although I hated it, setting all backdrop paths again...;)...but it's worth it.

Thanks xb2iris and Hitcher!

idlerobbo

2008-09-06, 17:41

awesome guys - that worked for me too!

Now to figure out how to delete items from the music library... maybe im just being blind?

bigbadrabbit

2008-09-06, 17:48

Bob___

2008-09-06, 19:06

What i want is to replace the OSD/Controls from AEON with the ones from MEDIASTREAM. I guess it could be done but don't know how or what to change...

Thanks for any help!

This is a very good suggestion, bigbadrabbit. I am the same opinion that the OSD of MEDIASTREAM (when a film is playing) is far superior to the AEON OSD in film mode.
And of course the MEDIASTREAM OSD is easier to handle.

But the rest of the AEON design looks like candy and is sooo beautiful :) Great work! I am so excited when the next AEON update will be released.

xb2iris

2008-09-07, 14:51

Thats probably because the OSD of Aeon was never quite a priority, and thus, never quite completed... I bet DJH's will get to it is his new release whenever that may be... but combining two skins... hmmm... do it personally... yes...

yadster

2008-09-07, 17:53

Hi!
What i want is to replace the OSD/Controls from AEON with the ones from MEDIASTREAM. I guess it could be done but don't know how or what to change...

I'd also like to see the weather page updated to look more like the Mediastream skin which looks much more slick. Everything else looks so sweet - it's definitely a skin that I will continue to use.

xb2iris

2008-09-08, 01:50

keep an eye on this section... aeon mod heading ur way... with a more slick weather page... or at least that's what i think!

Livin

2008-09-08, 02:34

keep an eye on this section... aeon mod heading ur way... with a more slick weather page... or at least that's what i think!

bring it on! :cool:

quanfer

2008-09-10, 21:14

Is there a way to edit how fast the fanart cycles through? I'd like to change the number of seconds the fan art transitions in the showcase views.

xb2iris

2008-09-11, 02:57

xml editing my boy... u need to edit something in the myvideonav.xml... it's near the beginning in an image tag... can't really tell u the exact code because i don't have any7thing around at the moment... hope u can figure it out...

Livin

2008-09-14, 06:48

xb2iris,
you still planning a mod release?

xb2iris

2008-09-14, 15:02

yep, l8r today or tomorrow depending

pletopia

2008-09-14, 17:37

I'm using Aeonmod at the moment (the one with the wall being vertical scrolling instead of horizontal) .. xb2iris, will your mod have this wall ?? or the default one that Aeon uses

xb2iris

2008-09-15, 00:03

yeah, i'm usins the vertical wall myself... liked that one way more for functionality purposes... but there's a lot more than that... should be up soon... hope u like it! it's been a lot of work...

eQUIV

2008-09-24, 09:20

Hi!

I'd like to know if it's possible to change AEON to look like MEDIASTREAM but only when watching media?

What i mean is - i like AEON a lot more than MEDIASTREAM but when it comes to bring up the OSD when watching a movie or show, MEDIASTREAM wins.

What i want is to replace the OSD/Controls from AEON with the ones from MEDIASTREAM. I guess it could be done but don't know how or what to change...

Thanks for any help!

I completely agree with you. I love AEON (xb2iris mod). However the OSD for playing media is much nicer on Mediastream. And also because I like to use wide banners for tv shows, I much prefer Mediastreams wide-banner display mode.

These are the only things I'd like to see updated/added and then I'll probably be usimg Aeon fulltime. I'm currently using mediastream and probably will continue to until these changes get implemented.

Anyways, I love the skin. Keep up the great worl to all those contributing, it is appreciated.